Different Epics/Kanban Boards with same Issue Numbers under one project

[Justin Rapisarda]

Hi All,

I'd like to know if a single Jira project can have multiple sets of issues with the same issue numbers (eg. under different Epics or KANBAN boards)?

I work for an engineering company that builds avionics and simulator components. We have a need to set up a 'Non-Conformance Register', which would be used to track time spent on rectifying any non-conformances (defects) raised by our various customers.

We'd like to have all non-conformances contained in a single Jira project (our Non-Conformance Register), but separated into each of our customers' projects by either an Epic or using different KANBOARD boards.

We want all issues/bugs that are generated for each customer to have sequential numbering (eg. 1,2,3,4....) as opposed to spreading numbers across each project, thereby missing numbers (eg. 1,5,6,8,10... etc)

Our desired outcome would be something like this:

Jira Project Name: NCR - Non-Conformance Register

Epic#1/KANBAN Board#1: Customer 1

• NCR-1 (Issue#1)
• NCR-2 (Issue#2)
• NCR-3 (Issue#3)

Epic#2/KANBAN Board#2: Customer 2

• NCR-1 (Issue#1)
• NCR-2 (Issue#2)
• NCR-3 (Issue#3)

Epic#3/KANBAN Board#3: Customer 3

• NCR-1 (Issue#1)
• NCR-2 (Issue#2)
• NCR-3 (Issue#3)

Thanks in advance for your input!

[Kat Warner · Accepted solution]

To achieve something close to this you would need a separate project for each customer.

Epic#1/KANBAN Board#1: Customer A

• ANCR-1 (Issue#1)
• ANCR-2 (Issue#2)
• ANCR-3 (Issue#3)

Epic#2/KANBAN Board#2: Customer B

• BNCR-1 (Issue#1)
• BNCR-2 (Issue#2)
• BNCR-3 (Issue#3)

Epic#3/KANBAN Board#3: Customer C

• CNCR-1 (Issue#1)
• CNCR-2 (Issue#2)
• CNCR-3 (Issue#3)

You could then have a NCR board that uses a filter like "project in (ANCR, BNCR, CNCR)". 

[Justin Rapisarda]

Hi @Kat Warner 

Thanks so much for your speedy response! I appreciate your feedback.

What we are trying to avoid is creating an another separate project for each customer. This is because each customer already has their own project in our Jira account.

Our first preference is to keep all our non-conformance issues separate from the main project and in its own Jira board. For example:

• Customer A (Main Project Board)
• Customer B (Main Project Board)
• Customer C (Main Project Board)
• Non Conformance Register (NCR)
  • Made up of NCRs for Customer A, B and C

Do you know if this is even possible or is this a constraint within Jira?

Thanks again.

[Kat Warner]

Two of your requirements clash with each other so you will need to decide which one is more important:

• We want all issues/bugs that are generated for each customer to have sequential numbering
• We'd like to have all non-conformances contained in a single Jira project

[Justin Rapisarda]

@Kat Warner 

Thanks so much for your clarification that there is indeed a requirements clash (I was hoping there was a way around it! :)

Thanks again.

[Danno]

@Justin RapisardaI would like to offer a slightly different suggestion. I believe you could use components for this.

I created a Pseudo-ERP manufacturing flow that used components which in turn allowed for different boards to view just the issues in that component. I think that might be a way for you to do what you want. Likewise, you might be able to use a customer field to limit which customer NCRs show up on the various boards. We started down the path here using projects as a department (NCR project was for the QA dept.)

I would also like to chat with you regarding how your system is set-up. We are both working in Aerospace (Stratospheric balloons here) but I suspect we could share some best practices.

[Justin Rapisarda]

Hi @Danno thank you so much for your input.

You are spot on, just this week we implemented exactly what you suggest.

We created a top-level Jira project called: Non-Conformance Register (NCR)

Within this top-level project, we've created several Kanban boards, one for each project.

We then created component names to match each project and inserted a filter query on each board to only show issues that relate to that project, eg:

Non-Conformance Register (NCR)

1. Kanban board #1 (Project A) --> Component A
2. Kanban board #2 (Project B) --> Component B
3. Kanban board #3 (Project C) --> Component C

I'd be more than happy to collaborate with you and share our ideas. There are a few engineers in our organisation that are trying to take Jira deeper. Happy to take this offline over email/Microsoft Teams/Zoom/Webex. My email is: justin.rapisarda@thomas-global.com.

Feel free to reach out.